by Bianca D'Arc
“You look sexy without a shirt,” she said playfully.
“So do you,” he countered, loving the way she blushed. “When my house is built, you can go topless here any time you like.”
She laughed, even as her blush intensified, and she let go of his shirt. “Play your cards right, deputy, and I might just take you up on that.” She turned away to finish dressing while he pulled on his shirt.
He’d leave it off except for the chiggers that like to nibble on his human flesh. He knew they hung out closer to the water, and he didn’t want to itch for a week. He’d already been there, done that—and wore the T-shirt now to stop it from happening again. There was nothing worse than an itchy bite on your back you couldn’t reach to scratch. No, thank you.
He made sure everything was in place—his cell phone, his badge, his weapon—and was charmed when Tina came to his side, surprising him by taking his hand. He liked the way their fingers fit together. It reminded him of the other ways they had fit so nicely together. Down, boy.
They walked, hand in hand, the short distance down to the water. There was a bit of a steep incline before the beach started, which would keep his future home safe from tidal changes and storms and would also allow for a magnificent view of the water, once he got his house built. He helped Tina down the dune and then onto the rocky shore.
They walked for a while, moving slowly toward the edge of the water. Little wavelets lapped at the coarse sand, and the occasional seashell, or bit of kelp, littered the path. Gulls cried in the distance, and the peaceful calm of the gentle waves did their magic, bringing their serenity to Zak’s spirit.
As did the woman at his side. Tina both excited him beyond all reason and calmed the raging beast inside him. She was a balm to his soul, just by her existence. How he wished he could tell her everything he was feeling, but he didn’t want to scare her off. Maybe, in time, he would be able to share more with her. He looked forward to that day with great anticipation.
Tina paused and looked out toward the mouth of the cove, shading her eyes.
“This is a beautiful place, Zak. You have a gorgeous view of almost the entire cove from here.”
“Yeah, that’s a big part of the reason I chose this spot,” he replied, watching her instead of the water. She was so incredible. Her loveliness rivaled that of this beautiful spot he now called his own.
“What the—?” Her words trailed off as she looked down at her feet. Zak saw the dismay on her face before he, too, looked downward.
Something in the water had reached out a… Tentacle was the only word he could come up with for the long appendage currently wrapped around Tina’s ankle. She tried to pull free, but the thing wouldn’t let go.
“Zak?” A hint of panic laced her tone as she looked up at him.
“Hold on to me,” he cautioned, reaching for his concealed weapon. She clutched at his left arm while he sought the gun with his right.
Zak never went anywhere unarmed. It was part of his job, but also something he’d done since leaving home all those years ago. He was a natural with weapons and felt a little naked without at least one on his person.
He pulled the 9mm handgun out of the ankle holster he’d kept hidden beneath the hem of his jeans and took aim at the tentacle that was working its way up Tina’s leg. She was holding onto Zak, but he felt the strength of the pull on her body. That thing—whatever it was—was exerting some force to drag her toward the water.
Zak wasn’t about to let it have her.
He fired off several rounds, all direct hits on the tentacle, but the slugs just barely slowed the sea monster down. That’s when Zak realized he really only had one choice. He had to go bear. He just hoped it would be enough.
Kicking off his shoes and unbuttoning his jeans, he got as close to naked as he could as quickly as possible. Tina was panicking now. He could tell from the way she clutched at his arm.
“I’m going to shift. I’ll get between you and it. I won’t let it take you,” he rasped out quickly. “I promise.”
He held her gaze as he let his change come. One moment, he was a man, with Tina clinging to his left arm for dear life. The next, he was a giant black bear. Not as large, maybe, as the grizzly shifters he hung around with, but still far bigger than any regular black bear.
Zak growled as he turned and attacked the tentacle, just clear of Tina’s foot. He slashed with his claws and bit with his sharp teeth. The flavor of the creature’s blood on his tongue was acidic and like no blood Zak had ever tasted before. It was disgusting. Not fishy, as he would have expected.
Something wasn’t right with the creature.
Hell, nothing was right with this situation at all. Sea monsters didn’t just appear in the Pacific Northwest and pull unsuspecting women to their depths in the ocean.
Zak applied all his bear strength to tearing the limb off the creature and freeing Tina. All that mattered right now was her safety.
With a final burst of effort, he ripped through the half-foot of flesh that connected the tip of the tentacle with whatever lay just off shore, under the waves. Tina screamed as he broke through, and she was suddenly free. She fell to the ground but was quick to scramble as far away from the shore as she could get, the remainder of the tentacle still twined around her leg.
Zak let out a mighty roar toward the water, a warning of sorts, as well as an auditory victory dance. Round one had definitely gone to the bear. This time.
Zak followed behind Tina, urging her to move farther inland, even as the tentacle stuck stubbornly to her leg.
She made it to the picnic blanket and collapsed onto her side, pulling at the twitching tentacle. Zak came up to her and pushed her hands gently aside, using his bear claws and tough-padded paws to remove the thing and put it aside. He wiped the residual slime off his paws on the grass before shifting back to human form and taking Tina in his arms. She was trembling in reaction.
“It’s okay now. You’re safe,” he crooned to her, holding her as she clung to his bare shoulders.
He knew some of his comrades would be showing up soon. They had to have heard the commotion and the gunshots. That wasn’t normal for the cove, so someone would come to investigate and help. His buddies were good like that. Always ready to back each other up when needed.
And, sure enough, he heard the sound of vehicles approaching. He had about five minutes before Brody and John, and possibly a few others, came barreling in.
“We’re going to have company real soon,” he told Tina in a soothing voice. “The guys will help us figure out what the fuck just happened here.” He couldn’t keep some of the exasperation out of his voice or censor his words. Had they really just been attacked by a fucking sea monster?
The thing reeked of magic. Even as the severed limb twitched one last time on the grass by their side and finally stilled, it glowed with an unearthly light. That fucker just wasn’t normal.
Chapter Eight
Tina was slowly coming down off the panic high. Zak’s arms were around her, and he was so amazingly…amazing. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. He’d shot at that…thing…that had tried to drag her into the water, and when that didn’t work, he’d changed. Right in front of her. He’d turned into his bear, and holy shit! He was massive.
The grizzlies might say he was small, but as far as she was concerned, he was one big, scary-assed bear. Only, she’d known he wasn’t going to hurt her. She’d known, deep in her heart, that he only cared about protecting her from that…creature. Whatever it was.
“Octopus?” she wondered aloud, resting her head on his deliciously warm shoulder.
“What?” he asked gently as her wits began to reassemble inside her mind.
“Do you think that was an octopus?” she clarified, though she had a feeling that thing hadn’t been any regular sort of sea creature. “Or maybe a giant squid?” She held out a vague hope that it could be explained by somewhat conventional means.
“Sorry, babe. I don’t think so.” Zak looked
over at the tentacle, and she followed his gaze. Yeah, that didn’t look like any sort of regular sea creature she’d ever seen, or even heard of.
“So what is it?” She was almost afraid to ask.
“Beats the hell out of me,” Zak answered almost at once. He moved back, releasing her by slow degrees. “Are you okay now? The guys are on their way in, and I want to scout down by the shore for a minute. Make sure it’s gone.”
He met her gaze and waited for her answer. Somehow, his calm demeanor, even after what they’d just encountered, reassured her. His actions told her he was a man who had seen worse and survived. He would see her through this. In fact, he already had.
“You saved my life,” she whispered.
Zak looked a little uncomfortable, but his gaze remained steadily locked with hers. The moment felt significant.
Tina leaned toward him and touched her lips to his.
The kiss turned molten in no seconds flat. She ran her hands over his shoulders and realized, finally, that he was naked. Whoa, mama. How could she have missed something like that?
She wanted to tackle him to the picnic blanket and have her naughty way with him again, but he was already moving away.
Why? Where was he going?
A little bit of sanity returned, and she remembered what he’d said. They were going to have a bunch of guys up here any minute. Yeah. Okay. Um. Right.
She could deal.
Sort of. If her breathing would just stop sounding like a choo choo. She had to get a grip and calm down. Especially if—as she suspected—her new brother-in-law, the sheriff, was going to find her, at any minute, tangled up with his deputy. His very naked deputy.
Finally, she found the will to let him go.
“Okay. Sorry. To be continued…I hope,” she dared to say, even as he got to his feet.
He paused, looking down at her as she sat up. Her mouth watered as she tried really hard not to look at what was right in front of her. She met his gaze and did her best to keep her eyes trained there, on his. She was not going to ogle his package, though he seemed in no hurry to hide the goods.
“We will most definitely continue this, sweetheart. But not here, and not now. We’ve got to be safe before we go wild again, okay?” He sent her an audacious wink that heated up her insides before he turned and walked calmly down to the shore.
She couldn’t help but stare at his butt. The man was pure muscle. Every solid inch of him was toned, tan and buff. Sweet Mother of Mercy!
She hadn’t really had much of a chance to look at him before. Their coming together that first time had been like lightning striking—an elemental force of nature that could not be denied. She’d held on and gone with the impulse, riding the lightning bolt all the way to the stars. He’d been that good.
The best she’d ever had, actually. And she wanted more. Much more.
Zak bent over and tugged on his jeans, which he’d shucked down by the water when he shifted. She noticed he kept his eyes on the murky depths even as he dressed. She was sorry to see all that manly flesh covered up, but even she could hear the engines now. The cavalry was about to arrive in force.
Sure enough, Brody was the first to show up. Tina got to her feet and shuddered at the slime trail twined around her leg. The strength of the suckers on the tentacle had even ripped her jeans in places.
“Sitrep,” Brody demanded of her, as if she was some kind of commando. She wanted to laugh, but this was no laughing matter.
“That thing…” she pointed to the dead tentacle on the grass, “…tried to drag me into the water. Zak went bear on its ass and ripped that arm, or tentacle, or whatever it is, off the bigger creature, which I guess is still in the cove. Zak’s checking now.” She pointed to Zak, who was still looking at the beach, bending from time to time as if looking for, or perhaps reading, tracks of some kind.
Brody’s face looked grim. “Are you okay?”
“Fine now. Zak took good care of me.”
She kept feeling the need to defend Zak to the other men. Why, she had no idea. They respected him. It was clear in the way they treated him. Plus, he’d worked with them far longer than she’d known any of them. But something inside her wanted to jump up and proclaim Zak’s capabilities, and the fact that he’d never let her down.
Brody nodded once, then headed straight for the beach. What was it with these guys? They walked toward danger, instead of running the heck away. She had to hand it to them, these shifters had brass ones.
“How are you holding up?” John’s voice came from behind her, and she turned to find him close, though she hadn’t heard him approach. It was spooky, sometimes, how silently these shifters moved.
“I’m okay,” she replied, meeting his concerned gaze. “Thanks.”
He looked her up and down, then, seemingly satisfied, walked toward the long tentacle stretched out on the grass next to the blanket. He crouched down, looking at it, but not touching.
“What do you reckon it is?” John asked.
Tina wondered why in the world he was asking her, but just then, Brody and Zak stepped into her line of sight, having come up from the beach. Brody crouched at the other end of the long arm, across from John, while Zak came to stand next to Tina.
“Something fey, maybe?” Zak offered. “It stinks of magic.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Brody replied, sniffing the air above the tentacle. “This is no earthly coloration either.”
“And there’s a sheen of magic to it. It just about glows, even in daylight,” Zak added.
John looked up at Zak sharply. “You can see it?”
Zak nodded slowly. “It’s like something I saw, just once, when I was a kid back on the bayou. It was smaller and not shaped exactly like this. It was more gator than sea monster, and it had been brought to this realm by a voodoo lady to guard her lair. She wasn’t on our side. She was evil. Served evil.” Zak’s words slowed as he seemed to remember, and a slight drawl made its way into his speech. Probably the patterns of his youth, Tina realized, that he’d obviously gone to some lengths to lose. “The voodoo woman tried to curse me once, and the gator-thing showed itself to run me off. It glowed a lot like this does to my sight.”
John made a grumbling sound deep in his throat as he contemplated the evidence. His frown was one of displeasure mixed with determination.
“We’d better preserve this, somehow,” he said, standing from his crouch. “I’ll put a call in and see if there are any experts nearby that can help us out.”
“I’ll take care of the evidence,” Brody put in, standing as well. “In the meantime, we’d better warn folks to stay away from the water.”
John tilted his head, seeming to consider the sheriff’s suggestion. “Humans, maybe,” he allowed, but Zak shook his head.
“Everybody, Alpha. Not just the humans. I emptied an entire clip into it, and the thing didn’t flinch. Even with my claws, it wasn’t easy to break its hold. The beast is quick, silent, and has a hide like boiled leather. Warn everybody,” Zak urged.
John nodded slowly. “Okay. Everybody. We’ve got a council meeting tonight. Let’s make it official and turn it into a town meeting. Can you boys get the word out?”
“Consider it done,” Zak replied, even as Brody opened his mouth to answer.
“Humans too. Might as well include the Baker sisters, since they know pretty much everything there is to know about our little community now anyway,” John added as he turned to walk away. “I’ll call off the rest of the cavalry,” he added almost as an afterthought. “See you in a few hours.”
“Zak,” Brody spoke as John left, “maybe you ought to take Tina home.” He shot a significant look at her torn jeans as she fidgeted under Brody’s inspection.
Since he’d mated her sister, Brody had become a sort of older brother and authority figure all rolled into one. He took the protection of his wife’s family very seriously, which made Tina feel a little odd at times. She’d been a free spirit for so long it was weird to
have this powerful guy want to be part of her life—all for her sister’s sake.
It was endearing, but also a little maddening. Tina knew if she ever wanted to just cut loose, Brody would be there, frowning at her. Come to think of it, Tom would be frowning too. These bears were super protective, and Tina had somehow come under the umbrella of their protection since her two sisters decided to take those boys home and keep them.
Then again, maybe it was about time Tina did the same. She knew which bear-man she wanted. He was standing right in front of her. But she didn’t really have the nerve—no matter what her mischievous inner bad girl said—to just jump Zak’s bones. Again.
The first time had been spontaneous. Part of a lovely, almost magical, romantic afternoon. It had an ethereal quality to it in her memory already, like a daydream come true—with naughty overtones and pulse-pounding ecstasy as the payoff. Still, it was like something precious, and she didn’t really know how to get back to that place—or if Zak felt the same about it.
Maybe to him, it was just a quick bang in the grass. She didn’t think so. Everything pointed in the other direction, in fact—the careful planning of the picnic, the way he’d put such care into cooking for her, the romantic setting. But what did she know? Maybe he did that for all the girls. Maybe she wasn’t as special to him as he was quickly becoming to her.
She felt insecure, and that tended to negate her wilder nature that wanted to walk right up to him and drag his head down for a kiss. And other things…
“Yeah,” Zak replied to Brody, stirring Tina out of her somewhat lascivious thoughts. “I’ll drop her off at the bakery and come back with a cooler of ice for that.” He gestured toward the tentacle. “Maybe several coolers,” he amended.
“Sounds like a plan,” Brody agreed. “Nell’s at the bakery now. Tell her to shut down for the night. Everybody will be at the meeting anyway. No sense keeping the shop open.”
Tina was a little surprised at the idea of closing down the bakery. The sisters had an unwritten rule that they’d do their best to keep regular hours, but she saw the merit in Brody’s suggestion. Grizzly Cove wasn’t a big city like Portland. Everyone here was part of the small community of bear shifters.